China and Norway surging ahead on electric vehicle sales

Fresh analysis of the electric vehicle market has shown China and Norway dominating in terms of sales and market share.

The data was compiled by the Centre of Automotive Management (CAM) in Germany.

China dominates in terms of the number of new sales with 142,445 electric vehicles purchased in the first quarter of 2018, a 154 percent increase on the first three months of 2017.

Meanwhile, Norway’s share of registered electric vehicles rose to an astonishing 48 percent, up from 35 percent on last year. In total, 16,181 were purchased between January and March.

Sales of electric vehicles in China, Germany and the UK all represented a 2 percent share of the overall total in each respective country. However, Germany saw a 70 percent increase in new electric vehicles over the past year, up to 17,549. The UK’s figure of 14,084 was a healthy 11 percent increase on 2017.

Provisional figures from last month also showed that diesel sales in both Germany and the UK had fallen off a cliff compared with the same time last year. Diesel has made significant declines in all three months of 2018 in Germany, reaching a high of 25 percent in March. UK sales dropped by 37 percent.

“In Norway, where now almost half of new vehicle registrations are e-vehicles, it becomes clear how quickly a change in drive technologies can take place. Generally, e-mobility is also gaining momentum.”

It is expected that electric vehicles will dominate the automobile market in years to come as concerns about air pollution and climate change become more prominent. In addition, steep reductions in the cost of lithium-ion batteries, which are used to power the vehicles, have helped stoke the market.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance has predicted that by 2040 sales will account for one third of the world’s auto fleet, a total of 530 million vehicles.